Writing my way through writer’s block

The challenge of writing a post every day can become a burden. What do you do when writer’s block stares you in the face and nothing comes to mind?

The solution, I tell myself, is simple: write about that. Write about having nothing to write about. Don’t allow the immense weight of the block to settle in and smother you. Instead, I dig my way out by confronting it with words on paper.  “I have nothing to say,” I write, “nothing that interests me today; I am at a loss for words.” Just getting that down on paper crumbles the block as my pen moves across the blank page.

Or I recall my father’s go-to question when his dementia left him without a way into conversation: What do you see in front of you? I describe in detail the scene before me, or close my eyes and listen, then put down whatever I hear onto paper. In short, I write the world around me, descriptive, detailed, unjudging. And one after another the words become paragraphs and soon a page and then another, and I am writing again.

Writer’s block is an imaginary obstacle conjured by an anxious, insecure, fearful ego. Its best antidote is writing. Pick up the pen and put words to paper, any words. Open the laptop and dance your fingers into the shape of words on the screen.

[Daily post 039 of 260 in my year-long challenge.] ♨